Wakawaka

. . . [S]o this has been a remarkable year. The Qaddafi regime is over. Gbagbo, Ben Ali, Mubarak are no longer in power. Osama bin Laden is gone, and the idea that change could only come through violence has been buried with him. Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way that they will be. The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open. Dictators are on notice. Technology is putting power into the hands of the people. The youth are delivering a powerful rebuke to dictatorship, and rejecting the lie that some races, some peoples, some religions, some ethnicities do not desire democracy. The promise written down on paper – “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” – is closer at hand. . . .”

The Clinton Global Initiative is in session this week. Consider “attending” this session. It begins with three “commitments” CGI members have made – check out the wakawaka light – but is then a discussion that fills this layman with hope: new technology for a better world, and a Navy and Marine Corps acting smartly to nurture innovation.

Of particular note are the panelists’ take on Solyndra. Essentially: “Failure is the mother of innovation.” If we have no tolerance for failure, we’ll never succeed. (Not mentioned by the panel, but, for the record, Solyndra was conceived and moved through the approval process mostly under the Bush Administration.)

ITMN

Guru: “Today after the close the New England Journal published a phase 2 study of a new agent for the same disease as ITMN. The data appear superior and more compelling. ITMN has a drug that appears to be a weaker version of what was published today. The competitor will still need to do a phase 3, so it couldn’t be on the market for 3 to 4 years. ITMN will be the only game in town in Europe and will generate significant sales. After that it depends on the data. However today’s product looks impressive. And other companies will try similar drugs. Sure wish I could have anticipated the announcement.”